Rikers Island captain resigns after caught on video kissing inmate

Rikers Island captain resigns after caught on video kissing inmate

A Department of Corrections veteran captain at Rikers Island has resigned after video surfaced of her apparently kissing an inmate in the jail, PIX 11 reports.

In the cell phone footage obtained by PIX 11, Capt. Shantay Dash can be seen walking by an inmates cell before she stops to start up a conversation and the two appear to lean in for a kiss.

“What the heck?” Dash yells after the kiss, but the two high-five shortly thereafter.

The footage was reportedly recorded on a cell phone that had been smuggled in to an inmate as contraband.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw5Y9TFdI0I

PIX 11 also reported that Dash resigned on Monday, just short of 10 years of working at the jail, meaning she will not receive any pension.

This is not the first offense for Dash, either, as she was arrested in January, according to court reports, for smuggling a tattoo gun into Rikers Island so that an inmate could change a tattoo that would link the inmate to a crime.

“They develop relationships that are unhealthy,” Commissioner Joe Ponte said. “They get staff — again, in small numbers — to bring in phones and contraband.”

The Department of Corrections has since released a statement, saying, “That vast majority of Department of Correction staff perform their duties with the highest level of integrity and Commissioner Ponte has zero tolerance for those who don’t.”